System and method for monitoring and managing data center resources in real time incorporating manageability subsystem

• US 9,680,716 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2012
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vertiv IT Systems, Inc. (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Original Assignee: Avocent Huntsville, LLC (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Inventors: Jovicic, Sasha, Khuti, Bharat A., Geffin, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nam
• Application Number:
  US14/364,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20140337474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,644 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3082 the data filtering being achieved by aggregating or compressing the monitored data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5077 wherein the managed service relates to simple transport services, i.e. providing only network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage

Abstract

A method is disclosed for forming a distributed data store using a remote access appliance associated with a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system. Data may be generated which is associated with operation of managed device being monitored by the DCIM system. At least one remote access appliance may be used to receive the data. An element library framework may be used by the remote access appliance to generate events from the data. The remote access appliance may also be used to implement a complex event processing subsystem to analyze the events and to generate event related signals therefrom. A bus may be used to transmit the event related signals from the appliance to a common platform services (CPS) subsystem of the DCIM system. The CPS subsystem may be used to receive the event related signals and to use the event related signals to inform the user of an aspect of performance of the managed device.

Claims

1. A method for forming a distributed data store using a remote access appliance associated with a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system, the method comprising:

generating data associated with operation of a managed device being monitored by the DCIM system;

using at least one remote access appliance to receive the data;

using an element library framework disposed in the remote access appliance to generate events from the data, and also using the remote access appliance to implement a complex event processing subsystem to analyze the events and to generate event related signals therefrom;

using a bus to transmit the event related signals from the appliance to a common platform services (CPS) subsystem of the DCIM system;

using the CPS subsystem to receive and use the event related signals to inform a user of an aspect of performance of the managed device;

using an event exporter service included in a processor of the remote access appliance to form first and second channels for exporting the event related signals, and

wherein the first channel is used for ones of the events detected as having a first priority level, and the second channel is used for ones of the events detected as having a second priority level different from the first priority level; and

wherein the data received by the element library framework comprises data points, and wherein the element library framework generates at least one of a new event or a new data point based on an analysis of one or more of the data points, in comparison to a user selected change of value (COV).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using an element library framework comprises at least one of:

collecting data points obtained by the remote access appliance from the managed device;

normalizing received events based on a predetermined policy;

transmitting one or more of the data points collected by the remote access appliance; and

generating simple network management protocol (SNMP) traps.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an event store service associated with the remote access appliance to receive signals representing collected events and to at least one of:

update a retention policy for new data;

or

query at least one of event data type, event data severity and event data range.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising using the event store service to asynchronously write raw events to an open source database.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an event collector to subscribe for simple network management protocol (SNMP) traps generated by the element library framework.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a threshold violation subsystem to detect when a user set threshold has been violated for a collected data point received by the remote access appliance.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an aggregating subsystem to aggregate data points collected by the remote access appliance and to provide first and second levels of aggregation to the collected data points in accordance with two different user set aggregating policies.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the element library framework comprises data points aggregated in accordance with the first level of aggregation that are stored separately from the data points that are aggregated in accordance with the second level of aggregation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a data point collector associated with the remote access appliance to schedule tasks for collection in accordance with a user defined policy.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a data point query service to query the data points by at least one of date range, managed device identification or data point identification.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the bus to transmit data points collected from a plurality of managed devices over two channels.

12. A method for delivering events associated with a managed device being monitored by a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system, the method comprising:

using an element library framework disposed in a remote access appliance to generate events from data concerning an operation of the managed device;

using a service bus proxy subsystem to receive both high priority and low priority events, via hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) transmission, on different channels from a remote access appliance associated with the DCIM system;

assigning one of the channels as a high priority event channel and another of the channels as non-high priority event channel; and

using an event delivery network to;

form two separate messaging queues for receiving the events from each of the different channels and transmitting the high priority events and the non-high priority events to separate storage subsystems;

simultaneously publish at least one of the high priority events and the non-high priority events to at least one of an event viewer and an alarm process; and

wherein the data received by the element library framework comprises data points, and wherein the element library framework generates at least one of a new event or a new data point based on an analysis of one or more of the data points, in comparison to a user selected change of value (COV).

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using a first splitter subsystem to send the high priority events to the messaging queues and a publish subscribe subsystem; and

using a second splitter subsystem to send the non-high priority events to the messaging queues and the publish/subscribe subsystem.

13. A method for delivering events associated with a managed device being monitored by a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system, the method comprising:

using an element library framework disposed in a remote access appliance to generate events from data concerning an operation of the managed device;

using a service bus proxy subsystem to receive both high priority and low priority events, via hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) transmission, on different channels from a remote access appliance associated with the DCIM system;

assigning one of the channels as a high priority event channel and another of the channels as non-high priority event channel; and

using an event delivery network to;

form two separate messaging queues for receiving the events from each of the two channels and transmitting the high priority events and the non-high priority events to separate storage subsystems;

simultaneously publish at least one of the high priority events and the non-high priority events to at least one of an event viewer and an alarm process; and

wherein the data received by the element library framework comprises data points, and wherein the element library framework generates at least one of a new event or a new data point based on an analysis of one or more of the data points, in comparison to a user selected change of value (COV).

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

using a first splitter subsystem to send the high priority events to the messaging queues and the publish subscribe subsystem; and

using a second splitter subsystem to send the non-high priority events to the messaging queues and the publish/subscribe subsystem.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the event delivery network further operates to receive critical data points and non-critical data points and to use a publish/subscribe subsystem to publish the critical data points and the non-critical data points.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the event delivery network operates to receive change of value (COV) events and to use a publish/subscribe subsystem to publish the COV events.